The Knicks were one of the pleasant surprises of the early season, getting out to an 8-1 start behind one of the league’s top defenses. But two games in a row they’ve had their opponent score at will — Dallas put up 114 in a win over New York on Wednesday, and the Rockets dropped an embarrassing 131 in a 28-point destruction of the Knicks on Friday.

This was Jeremy Lin‘s first game against his former team, and he played fine, finishing with 13 points, seven rebounds, and three assists in 35 minutes of action. The real stars for Houston though were Chandler Parsons (31 points on 17 shots in 34 minutes), and James Harden (33 points, nine assists, 16-of-16 from the free throw line).

Carmelo Anthony finished with 37 for the Knicks, but this was not New York’s night. Anthony got burned by Patrick Patterson flying down the court for a dunk when he stopped to complain to an official in the third, and Lin as well as Toney Douglas both hit momentum-building threes against their former team to help seal it.

Rasheed Wallace was a late scratch in this one with a foot injury, and Marcus Camby, while active, apparently still isn’t ready for game action, as he was a DNP-CD on a night where the Knicks really could have used some help on the boards.

This was no revenge game for Lin, even though his new team had no trouble taking care of his former one. He got a big-time contract in Houston, and the Knicks have a serviceable replacement in Felton and have a pretty good team assembled, despite their defensive troubles of the last two games.

Lin may not ever reach the level he did during the “Linsanity” run in New York he experienced a season ago, but he’s fine with whatever his role may be as long as he finds a way to contribute to his new team’s success.

“I’m not looking to recreate what happened in New York,” said Lin. “I want to be a consistent player. I want to get better. I don’t know what my potential is. I don’t know if I can play any better than I did during that stretch, but I’m going to find out to see how close I can get.”

Knicks suck. One and done in playoffs again. This roster will only get you another 6-7 seed in the playoffs and then everyone will continue to laugh at this disgrace of a team/franchise. Brooklyn walked into NY and instantly became the best team.

Learn a little bit huh. I guess the last decade or more of watchin your sorry knicks choke isnt enough. Lol. I check the records at the end of the season including playoffs. How bout you? I doubt it cuz you havent been relivent since ewing left. Patrick ewing sr not jr lmao.

Cleveland : “the mistake by the lake ”
I guess watching the Browns for the last 10 years and the NY Giants have put your mind in manic depression state . Heat were not relevant either till LBJ + Bosh came along. But I like the Knicks approach, making it more of a team effort than just one ball hog.
As for records , just call your Vegas bookie for the odds now for playoff contenders.. $$ talks, your BS walks.

Again, it is still too early to fall for ALL this hype. The Knicks are re-inventing themselves right now and all that talk before like “Coach of the Year” for Coach Woodson is just nonsense. No one knows yet how well or poorly they will do.

I still like the Knicks as a top-4 team in the East – in part because the East is looking pretty weak with teams like the Pacers reeling – but part of the Knicks’ early undefeated streak relied on incredibly hot shooting from guys like JR Smith that was unsustainable.

You’ve begun to see guys like Smith come back down to Earth a little bit. That doesn’t mean the Knicks are a bad team – I’m just pointing out that the way basketball works, it’s hard for a career 45% shooter to shoot 60+% forever.

It’s early, but the best challengers for the Heat in the East seem to be the Celtics and the Knicks.
Maybe the Bulls, but only if Derrick Rose comes back at near 100%.
Maybe the 76’ers, but only if Bynum ever starts playing basketball this season.
And that’s it.

In the West, I see 5, maybe 6, teams that could compete (and perhaps beat) the Heat.

I think Lin is taking a larger role as far as the team leadership goes. He’s such a positive role model and seems to be incredibly gracious with everything that’s happened. I think “Lins Rockets” may just be referring to that role that he’s grown into. The Knicks just don’t have a lot of those kind of people on their team unfortunately.

Lin is not taking a leadership role. He got benched in the fourth quarter a couple of games ago. Getting bench is not leading. Airballing wide open threes with the game on the line is not leading. That team is led by James Harden, the guy who actually played a playoff game, went to the Finals, and has a gold medal. You know the guy that showed up a couple days before the season started and dropped 45 his first game.

Also to say the Knicks dont have those kind of people on their team is just dumb. Guys like Jason Kidd are on the Knicks. Are you trying to say that Lin is a better leader than one of the best PGs ever to play the game? They have three players with championship rings on the roster (not counting James White who may of got a ring as a benchwarmer for the Spurs), five guys that have played in the Finals, and eight guys that have played in the conference finals. Don’t read too much into a bad Texas road trip that took place a day before and after Thanksgiving.

don’t forget about parsons who set his career high in the first half. at the very least they could also show the highlights of the three that Lin airballed by about three feet, the layup attempt by about two feet, and the layup attempt where he got scared and didn’t even get the ball out of his hands until he flew past the rim (worst shot I ever seen in the NBA).

Interesting article. Some additional thoughts on measuring Lin, as well as why the Knicks might have played such poor defense in Friday night’s game, are here: “Intense Scrutiny of Lin Invalidates Analysis” http://wp.me/p1qT5E-5t